What's happening at PGV
Friday October 30, 2009
Maui to be part of search for geothermal resources
ORMAT Nevada (headqarters for Ormat Technologies, Inc.) has won three U.S. Department of Energy contracts to use innovative methods to search for geothermal power resources, including one hunt to be done on Maui.
The three contracts are worth between $4 million and $5 million each. The other searches will be in Wister, Calif., and Glass Buttes, Utah.
Geologists have long thought that the most likely geothermal resource on Maui would be the southwest rift zone of Haleakala, which is where the last outbreak of lava occurred about two centuries ago. Another likely spot is the east rift zone in Hana.
The search will be done by ORMAT’s Hawaii subsidiary, Puna Geothermal Venture, which produces about 30 megawatts, or 20 percent, of the Big Island’s electricity.
Mike Kaleikini, PGV’s plant manager, said “there will be a lot of outreach” before any exploration starts.
He also said that modern techniques are largely “nonintrusive.”
Drilling is expensive, so narrowing down the search zone with cheaper methods is an advantage, Kaleikini said.
Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced up to $338 million in Recovery Act funding Thursday for the exploration and development of new geothermal fields and research into advanced geothermal technologies. There will be 123 projects in 39 states.